Ryan in, but predicted Green wave didn’t make it to shore
SUPPORT for the Green Party was predicted to rise significantly in this election, but the result was not nearly as powerful as the party had hoped.
Leader Eamon Ryan said: ‘We had a Green wave last May, but our vote has gone up since then compared to our vote in the local elections, so it has further increased. But you’re right, the issues of climate change, of biodiversity loss, didn’t feature.
‘I think it was because this whole election turned into Mary Lou versus Micheál and Leo.’ He said many young people appeared to have voted Sinn Féin because of its housing policy.
Mr Ryan said he was ‘very pleased’ with his performance in his own constituency where he claimed his seat on the first count in Dublin Bay South with 8,888 votes.
The party’s Catherine Martin also gained her seat on the first count in Dublin Rathdown, where Transport Minister Shane Ross lost his seat.
Ms Martin, a fluent Irish speaker, was first elected in 2016. She is married to Francis Duffy, a Green party councillor. As of last night, the party had 8% of the votes.
Green MEP Ciarán Cuffe told RTÉ early yesterday that he sensed on the doors in Dublin that there were more Green voters than ever before. ‘I was knocking on doors from Clondalkin to the north inner city, but I think what was interesting was a lot of older people saying “I’m going to give the Green Party a No.1 vote”... So, I think the huge focus we’ve seen on climate change, and what the leadership of Greta Thunberg has shown us, is business as usual is not an option.’
He said that he would like to see more parties take on green policies in a real way and warned against a ‘green wash’ in which political parties ‘walk the walk but don’t talk the talk’ on environmental issues.
Despite polling considerably well, Mayo’s Green candidate Saoirse McHugh, considered a rising star in the party, received 6% of the vote (4,177), while Fine Gael’s Michael Ring and Sinn Féin’s Rose Conway-Walsh won seats on the first count.